Almost Ready…

Unless you’ve been carefully avoiding Twitter and Facebook this week, you can’t have failed to notice that Jessy Karson is staying with me in London whilst he’s visiting from Montreal to shoot some porn scenes around the country. My invitation to Jessy to stay at mine was made a long time ago, but of course it’s nicely convenient that he’s here staying just as I am working up to starting production for Raw and Rough.

It would be almost criminal to not film something with Jessy whilst he’s here, and although I can’t resist allowing myself the opportunity of being in a scene with him myself, it means that I’m not behind the camera for the shoot. It’s not a huge problem – lots of Hollywood films are directed by people acting in them at the same time… Clint Eastwood in Million Dollar Baby, Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek III, Kevin Costner in Dances With Wolves, even Barbra Streisand in Yentl…

The problem becomes one of focus and trust for the person splitting both roles… on one hand you need to concentrate on delivering the best performance, but on the other hand, you’re wondering if the lighting is ok, are the sound levels peaking, is the person holding the camera in your place framing the shot the way you would do it, what if you watch it back and it’s not what you envisioned…

For my first shoot, I wasn’t prepared to give up so much of the finer creative control… so the solution was simple. Do two shoots, and find another partner for Jessy to do a scene with. That way, I can get the full experience of taking a shoot from concept to sticky tissues, and also get a scene in the can with me and Jessy together.

But who to pair him with? Having Jessy feature in my first production for Raw and Rough is a huge gift from the universe – no starting off in the little leagues, it’s straight in with the big names. I’ve had an interesting few days scouting around for potential partners, and of course the whole thing hangs around both not only my intentions for the scene, but also Jessy’s aims as well – I want him to do the stuff he’s been wanting to but not had the opportunities. There are certain things I’d like to see, certain things his fans want him to do in a scene, stuff he wants to do…

We considered quite a few guys, and then late one evening we were checking out porn actors on Twitter and Facebook, and Jessy said suddenly “Him. I’ve always wanted to shoot with him, we’ve talked to each other about it for two years and never had the chance… He’s a dirty pig like us, it would be so hot.” (Who is it? I’m not gonna spoil the surprise just yet… a magician, like a prostitute, never reveals his tricks, and neither should directors…!) 😆

Well, two days later, and I was booking flights for this guy to come to London for the weekend to shoot what I can only describe as the hottest scene I’ve always imagined both these guys capable of. It’s going to be sleazy, wet, in gear, piggy… A perfect scene to make my debut with!

It’s now that I’m in what I guess you’d call ‘pre-production’ on a scene that I can truly appreciate the organisation that goes in to a shoot, from sourcing and casting the performers, arranging the location, all the admin that goes in to getting everyone to the location at the right time from all over the continent, the technical checks of the equipment, the endless lists of things to be remembered… (Lube, poppers, towels, viagra, tripods, extra batteries, etc etc etc)

Saturday is the big day.

Before then there’s a huge amount of prep to do, then welcoming our co-star to London on Friday afternoon and spending a nice Friday night getting to know each other so that we’re all relaxed and comfortable ahead of the shoot. (Extra memory cards for the cameras, filters for the lights…)

It feels great to be finally getting stuck in though, something which will probably also apply on Saturday, as various people get stuck in to one another 😉